Meanwhile, on the perimeter of the Liège Fortress cluster.
Ludendorff, who was personally taking command in the staging area where the Instruction Assault Battalion was waiting to attack, also felt the fierce tremor coming from the ground.
The staff officers around him all showed surprised expressions.
“Was that an earthquake?”
“Doesn’t seem like it. That tremor… feels like it came from the center of Liège City.”
Ludendorff did not speak. He simply pulled out his pocket watch and checked the time. Nearly three hours had passed since Morin and his men launched their Air Drop. His slightly plump face was now filled with tension and anticipation.
Could it be… that Morin and his team truly succeeded?
This thought grew rapidly in his mind.
After a moment of inner conflict, a decisive look flashed in Ludendorff’s eyes.
Gamble time!
“Pass on my order!”
He suddenly looked up and commanded the Dispatch Rider beside him.
“Order all attacking forces to immediately launch a probing attack against the enemy facing them!”
Ludendorff’s order could be said to have been timed perfectly.
When the Saxon attacking forces, including the Instruction Assault Battalion, cautiously began to move forward, they hit the exact moment when the Barchon Fortress garrison was frantically preparing to retreat.
Kleist, leading the assault, commanded the Instruction Assault Battalion’s soldiers to nervously cut the Barbed Wire on the perimeter of the fort, quietly slipping into the empty first Trench.
“Where are the people? Where did the enemy go?” a soldier asked in confusion.
Kleist did not answer. He simply raised his binoculars and looked at the Barchon Fortress in the distance. The fortress, which had looked like an Iron Behemoth during the day, was now completely silent, with not even a single light on.
He immediately realized: had the enemy truly retreated because of the chaos caused by the Battalion Commander?!
“Red flare! Hurry!” Kleist shouted at the signals man beside him without any hesitation.
A dazzling red flare, trailing a long tail flame, whistled up into the night sky. This was the pre-arranged signal to confirm the enemy’s retreat inside the fortress and transition to a full-scale assault.
Almost simultaneously, similar red flares rose in the sky from the other directions where the ‘Meuse River Battle Group’ was launching its attack.
Kleist chambered a round in his MP14 Submachine Gun with a ‘click,’ and then pointed forward.
“Full battalion assault! Target, Liège City!”
He had only one thought in his mind now. Get into Liège City quickly to support Morin and the Assault Troops!
The soldiers of the Instruction Assault Battalion quickly dispersed as they had in their daily training, then cautiously rushed towards the Barchon Fortress that had once filled them with despair.
After sending a platoon of soldiers to cautiously enter the interior of the fort and confirm that it was indeed deserted, Kleist did not linger. He immediately commanded the main force to continue their swift assault toward Liège City.
Meanwhile, the Flanders garrison troops, who had just abandoned the sturdy forts and were retreating toward Liège City, quickly noticed the lights lighting up all over the hills behind them and the pursuing Saxon soldiers.
“Saxons! The Saxons are catching up!”
“How are they so fast!?”
Panic spread through the retreating ranks like a plague. The commanders of these Flanders garrison troops were now utterly filled with regret.
They couldn’t understand why the Saxon offensive had been so fast and so perfectly timed. It was as if the Saxons had known they were going to retreat.
If they had been inside the forts, they could have relied on the sturdy fortifications to fend off an enemy several times their size. But now, in this wide-open, flat area, they were like lambs waiting to be slaughtered, with nowhere to defend themselves.
“Quick! Organize a defense! Hold them back!” A Flanders Colonel shouted hysterically, trying to reorganize the utterly chaotic troops.
Under his command, a force of less than one battalion of garrison troops tried to construct a temporary blocking position on a gentle slope that offered a slight topographical advantage. They hoped to briefly delay the pursuing Saxons here, allowing them a more orderly retreat instead of a panicked rout.
If it had been any other Saxon soldiers, they might have actually been repulsed by these determined Flanders soldiers. But unfortunately, the troops they encountered were the most elite Assault Force of the Saxon Empire—the Instruction Assault Battalion.
Under Kleist’s command, the remaining three companies of the Instruction Assault Battalion had already completed their combat deployment according to the battle plan practiced countless times in daily drills.
The 1st Company and 2nd Company, acting as the ‘Forward Attack Team,’ quickly deployed across the front. They advanced in small squads, using the terrain for alternating cover, continuously firing at the enemy on the slope, successfully drawing all of the garrison troops’ attention.
The 3rd Company, acting as the ‘Flank Attack Team,’ stopped firing and quietly maneuvered to the right flank of the slope, circling around to the enemy’s rear.
“Grenades!”
Following the 3rd Company Commander’s order, dozens of spherical hand grenades were simultaneously thrown onto the enemy position atop the slope.
“Boom! Boom! Boom!”
In the midst of the violent explosions, the Flanders soldiers who had just gathered to block the advance were instantly scattered and shredded.
Without waiting for the smoke of the explosion to clear, the soldiers of the 3rd Company, armed with submachine guns and rifles, charged forward, shouting.
The rapid assault, amplified by automatic firepower, instantly tore apart the enemy’s line of defense. The Flanders garrison troops on the slope, under the dual attack from the front and the flank, collapsed completely with virtually no organized resistance.
Kleist did not stop to admire the Instruction Assault Battalion’s first frontal engagement. He sent out several Dispatch Riders, ordering the three companies to quickly resolve the battle, clean up the battlefield, and immediately catch up.
He himself led the 4th Company and the Battalion Headquarters, acting as the ‘Deep Attack Team,’ and, without even glancing at the still-contested slope, continued his relentless, full-speed advance toward Liège City.
Under the blessing of new tactical thinking and powerful automatic firepower, the Instruction Assault Battalion’s speed of attack was astonishing.
When Ludendorff, who was personally supervising the front line, followed the main force and breathlessly arrived at the slope, the battle here had long ended.
The air was filled with the pungent smell of gunpowder smoke and blood.
On the slope, besides a few dozen lucky survivors who were bound with their hands behind their backs and strung together as prisoners, the ground was covered with the corpses of Flanders soldiers. In a cleared spot to the side, twenty-odd bodies of Instruction Assault Battalion soldiers were conspicuously absent—a further testament to the unit’s success.
The main body of the entire Instruction Assault Battalion had already vanished.
A staff officer went forward to inspect the battle area, then reported to Ludendorff.
“General, an enemy force of nearly one battalion was completely wiped out here…”
Hearing this report, Ludendorff and all the officers behind him fell into a long silence.
They looked at the corpse-strewn battlefield before them, then thought of the unit that had vanished into the night as swiftly as the wind. An indescribable shock surged into the heart of every person.
This is… the combat power of the Instruction Assault Battalion?
After a long while, Ludendorff slowly spoke, his voice carrying a hint of unconcealed excitement and admiration.
“This is truly the Emperor’s blade!”
(End of this Chapter)